Hello!

My poor neglected blog! It's been sitting here in the background all summer patiently waiting for me to come and pay it some attention.

So where was I? Ah, yes, flowers. Plenty of them. The glorious summer that was 2013 gave me the cutting garden that I've always dreamed of.

I have had literally vaseful after vaseful of them for the last six months. I give them away by the bucketload and I can make an impromptu gift at the snip of my scissors.

I have done barely any crafting; no quilting or sewing at all, a little crochet in an attempt to get through the stash and last week as I felt the season had changed for sure, I cast on a pair of socks. All my time has been spent outdoors, and I have loved every minute of it.

Back in July, my allotment looked relatively tidy and was just starting to give me fruit and vegetables on a regular basis.

Then it went slightly mad. This is how it looked last week:

I could be working down there and be completely hidden from view. This weekend saw the start of the big tidy up, but let's talk about that another time.

When I wasn't outside in my own patch, I managed to grab a couple of weekends away camping and a trip to the Moreton Show, where I came away dreaming of livestock and wonderful different breeds of poultry. Ok, so maybe not this splendid chap!

Other days have been spent with friends and just generally catching up.

Now the nights are drawing in and I find myself craving the cosy side of crafting again. And that is a very good thing as I have been thrilled to work on an exciting project that will be revealed at the end of the week.

Oh, did I mention my dahlias? I'm in love.

Beyond the fence ...

Things have been pretty quiet around here in this space but I can prove that I have been far from idle. Last year I made the decision to take back my allotment space that is nestled beyond my back fence. I wrote a post here and talked about my first tentative steps in reclaiming this bit of land again.

It's funny how your memory plays tricks on you, and I can hardly believe that it once looked like the photo above. With a bit of help, I soon had my blank canvas to start playing with again.

Having been generously spread with rather pongy manure and then covered up in tarpaulins overwinter, this spring I started to make my 2-D plans that had been scribbled and sketched in my notebook come to life.

My Dad and I made some triangular beds out of some old used decking that we scavenged from our local nursery and I began to divide the area up in to workable areas.  The triangle beds are for my vegetables and in the photo above from a couple of months ago, there are garlic and broad beans that I had planted in pots in January.

The middle section is for my cutting patch and the section at the bottom, beyond the sweetpea wigwams, is for fruit.

The raspberries that I planted in November have started to show some green and the thought of harvesting some later in the year is about the only thing that is exciting No2 about my latest venture.

The strawberry patch is looking much healthier and promising since this photo too, with flowers abound which can only mean one thing: fruit. I'll be watching like a hawk to see that they don't get eaten before I get to pick them and I have netting at the ready.

Meanwhile in the greenhouse, it has been very full over the last three months and I have just about planted everything out now. I adore growing things from seed. The anticipation and nurturing are all good for the soul. Followed by the sight of germination and the forming of the first true leaves, it is the most satisfying thing I can think of.

There has been much carting about of compost and grit in an effort to try and improve the heavy soil and my wheelbarrow and I are firm friends and almost inseparable!

I even wore out my wellies!

And now it is starting to actually produce things. Radishes are the easiest and quickest of seeds to grow and it's a good thing, because I love them! At the weekend I sowed another half row of beautifully coloured Milano ones.

I'm pretty certain most things are dreadfully late this year, as is the case in my garden (I've never had tulips still flowering in June), but I'm looking forward to broad beans as promised by the gorgeous flowers on my plants.

It has been the perfect project to take me through what feels like an eternal winter and the most miserable of springs. The hours I have spent over there have kept me fit and happy and I can see that it is just going to keep on giving.

Plotting...

Back in the summer when I was in the throes of the daily delights of bringing flowers into the house that I had successfully grown myself, I got to thinking about bigger and better things. It seemed that the three raised beds that I had reutilised to feed this new-found passion were simply not enough. I found myself looking over the back fence at the allotment plot that I once worked until the sheer scale of it became too daunting for me to fit into what was, back then, a busier time in life.

One afternoon a few months ago, I could hear the solitary allotmenteer busy trying to cut the grass that surrounds the five plots and decided to bite the bullet and ask about taking on a plot again. The view that confronted me over the fence was pretty scary but then I knew that the four remaining plots hadn't been worked since I gave up back in 2008. I'm not sure how that little patch of bare earth in the photo below has survived the onslaught of weeds but it gave me a taste of how things could be.

After giving it a little bit more thought, I took action. I knew that I wouldn't be able to even contemplate clearing the plot on my own and so with the help of the lovely Sara, who I met on Twitter, I employed some muscle and now look!

My masterplan is to keep the majority of it covered overwinter so that I have a glorious blank canvas to work with next year. Who knew that I'd get so excited to order tarpaulins? Or manure?! But excited I am and my head is buzzing with plans about what to grow.

First up and in the ground are raspberries.  I did a bit of research (again, on Twitter) and got loads of responses back about the best and most reliable varieties. I've also got some golden ones on order.

I'm hoping that this weekend I can get a couple of other things in the ground just to get the ball rolling and then I can dream and list and plan and pin to my heart's content over the coming months.

I'm really hoping that I can have some fun with this space and that it reflects the things that are important to me. I'm thinking of a patchwork of growing space: one that is practical and pleasing to look at.

What are you plotting?